Rodney finally rolled into the imaging center of St. Joseph’s where he waited his turn for the MRI machine. The emergency room doctor who examined him wanted to see if there were signs of a brain injury from bleeding or swelling. The room was familiar to him because his mother worked here. But he had never actually gotten an MRI before. Rodney looked around the waiting room at the people gathered there. He saw an elderly black woman with her eyes closed and her hands folded in prayer. Rodney saw two scorpions crawling on her head. They had a dark yet glowing quality to them. Adoram pointed to her and told Rodney, “God wants to heal her.”

“So, God should do that. He should also tell her about those scorpions.”

“Those demon scorpions signify sickness. He will take care of them, but He wants to work through you.”

“Why?”

“So that His name may be glorified and her faith increased.”

“Well, what does that have to do with me?”

“God wants you to tell her that good news.”

“She’ll think I’m crazy,” said Rodney shaking his red head.

“She already thinks that,” replied Adoram nodding his head at the woman who was now staring at Rodney with a worried look on her face. “You are talking to an empty space in front of you.”

“I don’t wanna,” said Rodney turning his head down and to the side so he couldn’t see Adoram any longer. “I can’t adult right now.”

“God will never force you,” the angel replied, dropping the subject.

***

After the magnetic resonance image was taken of his head, Rodney was brought into Dr. Hagopian’s office where his mother was waiting. Sheryl had followed Rodney’s progress through the hospital emergency room to here, aided by her connections with her co-workers. She had just gotten the scoop from Dr. Hagopian on Rodney’s MRI. Rodney recognized the doctor from previous visits to his mother’s office.

“Oh, hey man,” Rodney weakly managed to say, afraid of what he might hear.

“Good news, young man,” said Dr. Hagopian. “Your skull is rock hard. And even though your brain is as soft as butter, it seems to have emerged unharmed from your recent adventures. But, I’m keeping you here overnight for observation, just in case anything changes. Your mother mentioned that you might be having hallucinations.”

“Yeah. I might be,” answered Rodney while casting his eyes down toward his shoes.